Go Behind the Scenes of Katy Perry’s ‘Wide Awake’ Video

Stuntmen, foreign directors, and shoes flying through the air were all a big part of the making of Katy Perry‘s ‘Wide Awake’ video. In honor of the clip being nominated for Video of the Year at the 2012 Video Music Awards, MTV has released nearly 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot.

The outtakes show Perry’s sense of humor behind the scenes as she puts together the fairy tale-themed clip loosely based on the past year of her life. Perry goofs off with the little girl playing the younger version of herself and teases the stuntman “Prince Charming” actor who she pretends to punch in the face.

The footage also captures French director Tony T. Datis at work. “He doesn’t speak much English, and I don’t speak much French,” Perry says, pointing out the communication difficulties on the set. “I don’t think he’s ever actually made a video with the artist in the video.”

Members of the crew discuss how they turned ‘Wide Awake’ into a 3D video, touching on topics like “depth balancing” and “gravity rendering.” It’s fascinating stuff if you’re into the technical details. Or if you’d rather just see Katy get hit in the face with a shoe, skip directly to Part 4.

If ‘Wide Awake’ wins, Perry will be the first artist ever to win Video of the Year two years in a row, since ‘Firework’ claimed the prize in 2011. Perry is competing against Gotye, M.I.A., Rihanna and Drake. The VMAs air on Thursday, Sept. 6.